Thursday 16 June 2016

BCO Office Procedures: The Research Before Listing

When a property is listed with BC Oceanfront, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into preparing the file. When that listing is a recreational or remote property, the research can be extensive.

 Ed has an amazing memory for properties, and can remember details of walking a property even 15 and more years later. His familiarity with our coastal regions gives him an understanding of different properties and some of the issues or challenges they may face (access, topography, etc). This information forms the beginnings of a research folder.

Identifying properties by their legal address so that they can be located properly on maps is key. Hours can be spent unearthing details about a property, following government document trails until we are sure everyone is talking about the same property (there aren't a lot of street addresses on recreational properties).

Mapping requires navigating a variety of websites, including the BC Government Online Cadastre and regional mapping sites such as the Strathcona Regional District's imap. Learning the many ways to use these websites and keeping up to date with them is something that requires ongoing training in the office.

Once the property has been mapped and identified then further details are looked at. Each property can have its own history of power availability, water (well logs, water licences) and septic (permits, inspections). Knowing which district the property is in and who to contact for those documents definitely saves time, so over the years the office has amassed a database of regions on the coast and the correct parties to talk to about these different issues.

If properties have docks or moorage that becomes another avenue of research and requires working with the clients to insure they have the documents which verify this.

All of the research that goes into recreational properties is also applied to residential properties. We use this information to create our information packages and web listings.

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

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